Downtown Portland student housing project resurrected

[BroadwayVik]

July 17, 2012
BY: Reed Jackson

A downtown student housing complex previously proposed by Opus Northwest is resurfacing through a partnership between Capacity Commercial Group and Dallas-based developer Phoenix Development Co. Project developer Brian Owendoff of Capacity Commercial thinks the project will help meet the growing demand for student housing around Portland State University. (Rendering courtesy of Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects)

Previously derailed plans for a large student housing project on Southwest Jefferson Street are resurfacing with the help of a new developer.

Opus Northwest originally proposed the 18-story, 380-unit high-rise building in 2008, but the project stalled when the company went bankrupt and left Portland in 2010. Now, Capacity Commercial Group, which partnered with Opus on the project’s original proposal, is trying again, this time with Dallas-based developer Phoenix Development Co.

Capacity decided to take another shot at the project because of the rising enrollment of nearby Portland State University, said Brian Owendoff, Capacity’s senior vice president. The school currently has close to 30,000 students, the most out of any university in the state. By 2030, that number is expected to inflate to 50,000.

“What is continuing to happen is there is demand for well located, purposed-built housing for PSU students,” he said. “(This is) will provide that much-needed housing.”

Capacity chose Phoenix Development because of the latter company’s success with developing student housing projects in the past, Owendoff said. Additionally, the company has access to large sources of public and private capital, which would be useful in developing a project that could cost upward of $50 million, he said.

The unit prices would be on the high end of the student housing scale, which means most of the students living in the building would be upper classmen or graduate students, Owendoff said.

Those students would be in close proximity to both the streetcar and campus, which is three blocks away from the project’s proposed 16,860-square-foot site, located between Southwest 11th and 12th streets.

Even with higher rents, Owendoff thinks the building would address the needs of PSU students looking for housing. The Ladd Tower, a project Owendoff helped develop in the area in 2009 when he worked at Opus Northwest, has succeeded despite the lofty prices of its units, he said.

“This project provides another price point in the market,” he said. “On a price-per-bid basis, we will be very competitive with newer-constructed, purpose-built housing.”

Project officials believe the building would also benefit the Central Business District, as well as the city as a whole. By adding 450 students to the area, local businesses could see a noticeable increase in foot traffic.

The project’s site is currently owned by the Portland Housing Bureau, which is selling the property to finalize a deal it inherited from the Portland Development Commission. Once the property is sold to Capacity Commercial Group, the PHB will use the money toward affordable housing projects in the downtown area, according to PHB officials.

The site’s small size could present construction challenges, according to Steve Poland, principal at Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects, which designed the project.

“We’ve got a 250-foot-long block line with adjacent buildings that are very close,” Poland said. “Getting the plan to work with that close of a proximity to buildings is the primary challenge.”

Fitting all of the building’s amenities – bike storage, a workout facility, ground-floor retail and multiple social activity spaces – into the design wasn’t easy, Poland said.

The hard work on the project’s design isn’t over yet, Poland added. It’s still early in the design phase and the project has yet to undergo review by the city’s design commission. As a result, the biggest challenges may still lie ahead, he said.

If the project continues to move through the design process, construction is set to begin in January 2013 and finish by the beginning of the 2014 school year.

 

[BroadwayVik]

From the PSU Vanguard: Developers dig into student housing market

By Erik Ruch July 31, 2012

Local company plans to build new apartment building near PSU campus

Thanks to one of the lowest vacancy rates in the country and rising enrollment in its colleges and universities, Portland can be a challenging place for students to find housing.

Hoping to ease the situation, a local developer has drawn up plans for a new, privately funded, 450-bed apartment building to be built on Jefferson Street between Southwest 11th and 12th Avenues, and it has been designed specifically for students.

Capacity Commercial Group, along with Phoenix Development of Dallas, Texas, plans to break ground in early 2013 and finish by fall 2014. Brian Owendoff, senior vice president for Capacity Commercial Group, said the project would put new housing within 600 feet of Portland State undergraduate classrooms.

Despite the project’s location, PSU has no official ties to the project.

PSU Director of Communications Scott Gallagher said the university recognizes the need to increase on-campus housing and the number of students living on campus. PSU is not a traditional campus like the University of Oregon and has significantly more students who commute to campus, Gallagher said.

Owendoff sees an opportunity in PSU’s limitations.

One of PSU’s greatest challenges will be meeting the need to house classroom and living space as the university grows from 30,000 to 50,000 students, Owendoff said

“PSU’s land is constrained on a 50-acre campus,” he said.

Projections place PSU enrollment at approximately 50,000 students by 2030. However, Gallagher cautions that the number is based on Governor Kitzhaber’s 40–40-20 plan. The 40–40-20 plan calls for 40 percent of all Oregon students to have completed a bachelor’s degree, 40 percent to have some type of post-secondary certificate and the remaining 20 percent to have a high school degree.

The PSU administration would like to increase the number of students living downtown and on campus, Gallagher said.

“Ideally, we have 25 percent [of students] living on campus,” he said, which would make for a “more vibrant, more engaging campus.”

“With the completion of University Pointe, that brings the number up to 3,000 beds total for PSU. But we realize that isn’t enough,” Gallagher said. He cited PSU’s track record of partnering with private companies to achieve expansion.

“What PSU does best is partnerships—the Student Rec Center and University Pointe are all examples of what can be created from these partnerships.”

Future projects that PSU officials are considering include housing for its employees. PSU has an agreement with the city to ensure that any housing structures it builds in partnerships with private entities would be low-income housing.

The proposed Jefferson West Student Housing Tower would have approximately 370 apartments, ranging in size from studios to four-bedroom, four-bath units. Projected rents are estimated at $3–3.25 per square foot for furnished units. This would translate to roughly $1,300 for a studio and around $1,000 per bed per month for a four-bedroom, four-bath unit.

The street level of the building would include retail shops and a café. The structure would not have parking on the premises.

The city of Portland is selling the property for approximately $2 million to Capacity Commercial to satisfy the terms of an earlier agreement. “The money obtained from this sale will be used by the city to provide low-income housing within the Portland city limits,” said Matthew Larrabee, president of Real Estate Services Group Inc. and faculty member at PSU. The city can do this by working with existing partners, both nonprofit and commercial developers, either to renovate existing properties or to develop new ones—most likely within the downtown area. This is accomplished by providing either tax abatement or low-interest loans toward the development of low-income housing within city limits.

The building that will be demolished was originally called the Cordova Hotel and Annex. It has been used in a variety of ways since its construction in 1923 and, according to information supplied by Capacity Commercial Group, is not listed on historic registers.